This invention relates generally to butchering equipment, and more particularly to a breast processor for poultry.
Butchering chicken is becoming increasingly automated. A number of inventors have tackled the difficult task of automatically butchering the "upper half" of a chicken carcass, i.e., the back, breasts and wings. However, owing in part to the fact that chickens are not exactly uniform workpieces, either in size or proportion, this task has continued to require human intervention at certain critical points, to avoid unsatisfactory cutting that would reduce yields and/or produce an inferior product. It is desired to minimize the need for human intervention, both to protect workers from cutting blades and to improve butchering efficiency.
The invention described in the application mentioned above automatically transferred each bird carcass from a tongue or tine protruding from a disk to a special fixture that supported the carcass as it was carried past a series of rotating knives, which could be positioned as desired to achieve a variety of cutting schemes. How the carcass was placed on the tines was not addressed in that disclosure. This application illustrates the subject matter previously described (with a few minor modifications), but is more concerned with the upstream aspects of the apparatus, that provide automatic transfer from a conventional foot shackle conveyor to the tines.